A/N: I'm starting this chapter now because I can't upload chapter 35, and it's very annoying that I can't. In fact, it's rather distressing, mainly because I haven't updated since...Wednesday? Thursday? I've lost track. My school is up in slings at the moment, so I'm having trouble concentrating...and that's with my homework all done! anyway, I will probably update once a week from here on out, and if you get more then that, which isn't likely, consider it an early Christmas gift from Sneko-chan. Also, I watched episode 2 of the anime...little Chrono's voice isn't bad, it's kinda cute, especially when he's serious. Rosette's on the other hands...is very annoying, so I guess it fits her character in the anime. And what's with her saying "I was a bad girl' all the time? Nope, her persona in the anime is veeeerrrrrryyyyy different.
Chapter 36
"Darn! Not again!" Golden paced back and forth on her cloud. When would he learn? Never. That's why they'd failed so often before. Failure wasn't an option now though, and she had to think of some way to avoid it. She had to find a way to stop him being so darn bull headed!
"Rosette. Rosette. Rosette." For someone who was supposed to be upset-
"Enough!" Brad jumped, his hands falling from where they'd been on her waits.
"Oof! Brad you idiot!" Rosette didn't even bother curbing the urge to hit her 'partner' over the head. The week had been hell and she had no patience.
"Temper, temper, Miss Christov." Aion purred as he clacked onto the stage, patting Azmaria's head as he passed by her. "Mr. Maloney, I know our Miss Hendric is a very pretty girl, but do try to keep yourself in the part. We don't want the crowd to think that you're not entirely faithful to your 'beloved' Rosette." Aion stopped and extended a hand to her. "My apologies, Miss Christov, for not helping you up sooner."
"You owe apologies, but not to me." Rosette smoothly slid to her feet, glowering haughtily at Aion.
"Rosette. Surely you aren't still listening to the lies of my little brother? Ah well, I suppose it can't be helped." Aion smiled, patting her on the head, just as he'd done to Azmaria. Rosette swatted his hand away, sticking out her tongue as he strolled across the stage. He turned as she did, catching the motion. "Miss Christov, might I advise you to be more respectful to your teachers? I should hate to see you put in an embarrassing position, or perhaps something might come up when my assistance is needed. You would be well put to be on my good side." he shrugged daintily, flicking at some dust on his jacket. "You, of course, wouldn't want someone else drawn into your acting problems." Someone else? Rosette stiffened. He didn't mean Chrono, did he? Chrono who was still passed out over at Mr. Remington's? "I see you understand, Miss Christov. See that it helps. Resume."
Rosette allowed Brad, once again to support her as he 'desperately' cried her name. How was Chrono? He hadn't woken when she'd gone over early that morning, nor had he any other day she'd gone over to check. Marne had told her that it was simply because he had been pushing himself too far, and Rosette could believe that. It was typical Chrono. Besides, as the week had gone on, his face had lost the fearful, pained look it'd had when she'd first come round. It seemed he was simply getting back some of the sleep he'd missed working nights.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to stop her worrying.
"Enough, enough." Aion grumbled, clapping his hands. "I can see Sunday practices are absolutely useless. There will be no more of them." The cast cheered, racing from the room out into the sunny freedom of a weekend in the fall.
Crunch. Crunch. Rosette smiled as the leaves crackled beneath her feet. She'd never really noticed the sound of leaves since Chrono showed her, back there, at the labs. One of the scientists had let him out to play for once, and he'd brought her with him. It had been funny, because he'd taken off his shoes and burrowed onto a huge pile, disappearing completely, even with his violet hair.
"Hey? Where did you go?" Rosette whined, staring at the huge pile of golden leaves. "Heyyaaa? Hello?" Carefully, she put one foot down on the crackling mass, winching as the leaves shifted beneath her.
Crick. She paused, toeing the leaves. They really were very pretty, golden, red, brown.
Crack. There were twigs intermingled with them too, and those made a much louder cracking noise. It was noisy. Rosette grinned. She wasn't allowed to make noise, it was rude but...
"Hiyaah!" She dove into the leaves, laughing as they prickled and scratched, crunching around her.
Fwashk! "Aug! Hey! Pitoo!" Squawking indignantly, Rosette spat out a mouthful of leaves and glared at her grinning playmate.
"That's what happens when you leave your mouth open." smiling quietly, he tossed another handful of leaves at her.
"Why you!" Screeching, she grabbed a handful and threw it at him, distracting him as she ran over and knocked him into the pile. "Mouth open? Your mouth will be open even wider you big goose!" Baring her teeth she unleashed her ultimate weapon...
The tickle attack.
"Uwahahaha- hey! Cut it oh no! Not the si -ha-ha-des!" Squealing and laughing, they chased each other around the small field, not a test subject and a modern princess, but two children, enjoying each other's company.
"Uwah! No! Not the sides!" Rosette looked up with a gasp then grinned as she watched Nina throw leaves at an outraged Kye, who now bore a very colourful headdress of the things. "That's for tickling me!" the smaller child snapped.
"Oh yeah?" Grinning himself now, Kye launched himself at the child and tossed her lightly into the pile of leaves. Smiling, Rosette tiptoed past the pair and into the house.
"I'm home." She sighed, dragging herself to the kitchen. This sucked. Everyone else was out, leaving after practice or having work.
"You seem bluesy today." She dropped into a chair, putting her forehead on the table as Chrono slid a plate of fluffy white cookies in front of her.
"Ug. Tell me about it!" She growled, gulping down the first cookie and choking. Gasping, she slugged down her milk. "I mean come on! Practice on Sunday? That totally sucks! And Brad was being a sleaze and watching Azzy the whole time! I wanted to kill him! And..." she paused, staring at her last cookie in confusion. "And it's been boring, because I've had no one to torment this week-" A cookie? It had been a week of bad cooking: burnt bread, over boiled veggies, fast food and greasy pizza. The cookies weren't bad either. In fact, they were very good. "Chrono!" Rosette let out a yelp, finally registering the fact that her friend was standing at the counter working on supper and not asleep the next house over.
"Mmhmm." Chrono inspected the bowl he was holding, picking at white goo that covered it with a sigh. "Well, it could be worse..." Rosette frowned. What on earth was he talking about?
"Are you sure you're alright?" She stood and walked to the counter, peering up at him. "You're acting funny." Smirking, she reached over to tug his braid, but her fingers only circled a soft, short ponytail that reached just behind his shoulder blades. "You cut your hair! Chrono, how could you? It was so..."
"It was in the way."
"Yeah right. Let's see." Snorting, Rosette tugged the scrunchie from his hair despite his attempts to catch her hand and the strands flopped around his face like a fluffy purple halo, the dark colour making his eyes appear to glow. Oh. Gulping, Rosette stepped away from his steady eyes, heart tumbling in a very worrying manner as he shrugged, resuming his scrubbing. As he bent his head, the strands slipped foreword, curtaining his profile so only the faint glow of his gold eye could be seen.
"Sassafras." he muttered, making Rosette grin.
"So what's the white stuff anyway?" she picked up a bowl covered in what appeared to be goo covered white sprinkles that had hardened. Chrono sighed, flicking strands of hair behind his ears and away from his face. Maybe his hair was nice short too, Rosette mussed.
"It's- hey!" He twisted as she scooped his hair back into a short braid, tying it off with the scrunchie.
"Well?" She asked, nabbing another cookie and washing her glass and plate. Chrono sighed, shaking his head and setting his braid and bangs bouncing. Rosette watched the effect, the cloth frozen in her hands, only realizing moments later that he'd already started talking.
Two hours earlier, Chrono had happily escaped a fourth lecture from Marne and had closed the front door, pleased to be home and letting the kids play in the yard's fresh jacket of leaves while he inspected the (great) damage. It wasn't as bad as he'd feared. If anything had blown up, they'd done a passable job of hiding it, unlike at Mr. Remington's where Kye, Kino and Tawny had blown up the microwave trying to make breakfast for themselves since Mr. Remington slept much later that Chrono did. Ewan had taken to getting up much earlier after that, if only to protect his appliances. Speaking of which- "YAH!" he froze as he stepped into the kitchen. "Sweet sassafras and vinegar!" Gulping, Chrono backed up to the basement door, winching as his hand encountered something sticky and very slimy.
Pizza boxes, Chinese take-out boxes, remnants of what might have been chicken, scraggly vegetables and a very disturbing black goop covered the floor, table, walls, pretty much everywhere except the counter, but that was only because the counter was covered with dirty dishes. Holding his breath against the smell -possibly a delicate combination of badly fried rice, cabbage and rotten eggs- he waded over to the counter and started in on the dishes, proceeding once he was finished that to shovel out the rest of the room and scrub the walls.
"Good grief." Chrono flopped onto a chair, looking around the now-clean kitchen. "I can't believe it was possible for it to get so messy in here so fast." Then again, he noted as he riffled through his recipes for something to make, it had been a whole week. It was bound to get dirty. He needed something to make for the kid's lunches, and the others lunches as well. Hah! He studied the cookie recipe he'd come up with, coconut macaroons. He hadn't made these in a while...
He should've picked something easier, especially after cleaning for so long.
"Let's see...four egg whites...whoops!"
(After cleaning up the broken eggs)
"Whisked with sugar...is it half a cup or a third?"
(After deciphering the recipe and cleaning up sugar and egg slime)
"Finally, five and a half cups of coconut...SASSAFRAS!"
Days like these could definitely turn a guy off cooking, at least when they were really tired.
"Ha- You're kidding, right?" Rosette scrubbed at her eyes, munching on another 'Disaster macaroon'. "I never thought you had trouble with cooking!"
"I'd forgotten how long it had been since I made them." Chrono wrinkled his nose. "And I remember why. I don't actually like them that much."
"Really?" Rosette grabbed the plate and snaffled down the rest. They really were very good. Chrono strode across the room, leaning on the counter and staring out into the backyard. Quietly, Rosette followed, standing beside him and watching the kids play.
"Do you remember when-"
"I try not to think about the labs." he cut her off curtly, turning away. Hurt. Rosette looked back to the window and caught his reflection smiling softly. "But, that is one memory that..." Chrono scooped up a handful of soap bubbles and blew them at her.
"Hey!" What had he been going to say? She wondered, grabbing some bubbles and smearing them on his face. He laughed and retaliated with some in her hair. "You idiot!" Now it would go all curly! Growling, she whacked him on the head.
"Uh...we're home?" The two bubble covered combatants froze, grinning sheepishly at Azmaria, Joshua and Fi.
"What exactly are you...doing?" Azmaria asked, studying the soap covered floor.
"This!" Grinning, Rosette flung some bubbles at her.
"Why you!" Fi, Joshua and Azmaria squealed and laughed, flinging bubbles at each other and Rosette.
"Don't you sneak away Chrono!" Rosette snarled, tackling him and tickling his sides. "You started it!"
"Did I?" For a moment he looked blank, before he grinned back and threw more bubbles.
Perhaps it was good there were so many dishes. It meant there were lots of bubbles to go around.
A/N: I know, a pointless chapter, but fun to write. I watched the whole CC anime...wail! Sob...It was so sad. However, there was a point about the anime ending that I liked better than the manga: In the anime, Rosette and Chrono get six months alone together. In the manga, Chrono returns after seven years separation, but then they die either then or very soon after. If you remember, Azmaria says: "This is the story of two people who are no longer with us..." At the end of the manga while she sets the pocket watch, which Chrono took with him, on the counter beneath the picture. Sigh... No, plot wise, the manga is better, but if you think of them as two separate series, it's easier not to compare. There were more sad moments in the anime, but there were many more fluffy moments too, the carnival scene being much fluffier in the anime -. Whatever way you cut it, it's a sad ending, but...there's a Five for Fighting song that has a line that goes something like: "There are no happy endings; it's the happy moments along the way that in the end make it ok." It's true in this case, no? Waaaaaah! It was still sad!